1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing voice data. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for monitoring and maintaining voice quality for a voice over Internet Protocol call.
2. Description of the Related Art
Softphones employing voice over Internet Protocol connections are becoming more and more common. Unlike landline connections, a softphone may relay on various elements to ensure a quality of service level.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology uses package switching capabilities on networks, such as the Internet, to provide phone service. Voice over Internet Protocol has a number of advantages over a traditional circuit switching telephone network. For example, packet switching allows several calls to occupy the same amount of space occupied by a single call in a circuit switch network, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Voice over Internet Protocol systems may provide different levels of service. Factors such as latency, jitter, and packet loss may affect the quality of a particular call. These and other factors may cause calls to become distorted, garbled, or lost because of transmission errors. Current systems focus on dynamically altering characteristics of the network over which voice over Internet Protocol calls are conducted. These changes include, for example, dynamically altering packet transmission attributes, reserving bandwidth in the network, changing the packet size, and changing the encoder/decoder quality to change the amount of information transmitted from a sender to a receiver.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method, apparatus, and computer program product to overcome the problems described above, as well as other problems.